Songspiration: The Roots "You Got Me"

Because this big world is actually small.

Songspiration: The Roots - "You Got Me"

This is one of my all-time favorite travel-themed songs. I love how Black Thought waxes poetic about meeting a woman while he's on a world tour and building a life beyond borders. Its truly beautiful and I get excited every time I see a homegrown artist on tour in another country. Yes, I wonder if I'm about to have a "You Got Me" moment. Also because ?uestlove and Erykah Badu. And because love, yo. Because love. 

Share your great travel songs in the comments so we can all fly together. 

The "Songspiration" series spotlights songs that are 1) travel themed; or 2) have travel related lines/verses; or 3) inspire me to travel even though travel isn't explicitly clear; or 4) are great airplane songs.

Going to Tokyo? Great choice!

The world's safest metropolis deuces big city crime stats.

Going to Tokyo? Great choice!

If you go to sleep and Paris and wake up in Tokyo (as Lupe Fiasco suggests you should), you'll find yourself waking in the worlds safest city for 2015. Tokyo, the world's most populist city according to the UN, is also the world's safest according to the Economists safe city index. So much for the theory that big, populous cities are dangerous, huh? The Index doesn't just account for personal safety, however. It also accounts for digital security, health security, and infrastructure safety. So, in short, Tokyo ranked highly enough in all four categories to take the title of numero uno. 

Asia holds the top three spots on the list with Singapore and Osaka following Tokyo. New York is the only U.S. city in the top 10, while Australia has both Sydney and Melbourne taking top spots. Toronto also reps for North America at number 8, while Europe claims spots 4, 5, and 7. 

The biggest surprise of the list to me was Chicago with an overall placing of 16. Yes, Chicago, Illinois is number 16 on the world's SAFEST cities list. I think we've all been hoodwinked and bamboozled by someone because its seemingly illogical that Chicago is (terribly) nicknamed Chi-Raq, yet places on the world's safest cities list. I need answers. 

Check out the entire report here or here.

Image Wikipedia

Songspiration: B.O.B. "You Got Me"

A lyrical, upbeat RTW trek.

Songspiration: B.O.B. - "So Good"

Today, our light shines upon B.O.B. and his upbeat travel song, "So Good." Bobby Ray's words literally take us around the world as he shows his lady how good life can be through song. So, let's fly with him and "pack your bags real good, 'cause you'll be gone for a while." And by a while, I mean 3 minutes and 42 seconds, which is how long the song is. 

Do you know a great travel song? Share it in the comments so we can all fly together.

 

The "Songspiration" series spotlights songs that are 1) travel themed; or 2) have travel related lines/verses; or 3) inspire me to travel even though travel isn't explicitly clear; or 4) are great airplane songs.

Wanderlust + Dreams Vol. 1 - Serra da Leba

An Angolan gem.

Wanderlust + Dreams Vol. 1 - Serra da Leba

Serra Da Leba Mountain Range is located in the African country of Angola. I love landscapes and this one is truly beautiful! Adding this to my to-go list and you should too! 

Share places that you'd like to visit in the comments so we can fly together.

Photograph Courtesy of Kostadin Luchansky and National Geographic

Because Everyone Likes A Good Proverb

These African proverbs will inspire you to travel.

Because Everyone Likes a Good Proverb

1. When the elderly ones in a house travel, the younger ones quickly grow in experience. -Nigerian proverb.

2. To travel is to see, to return is to talk. -African proverb

3. A traveller does not make a mess where he had made a camp as he might one day come back. -Swahili proverb

4. Don't travel under another's lucky star. -Swahili proverb

5. You travel on until you return home; you live on until you return to earth. -Ethiopian proverb

6. If an ass goes a-traveling, he'll not come home a horse. -Akan proverb

7. The road doesn't tell the traveler what lies ahead. -Bantu proverb

8. People get to know one another when traveling. -Bantu proverb

9. If the owner of the goat is not afraid to travel by night, the owner of a hyena certainly will not be. -Hausa proverb

10. He who has travelled alone can tell what he likes. -Rwandan proverb

11. A travelled child knows better than the old man who sits at home. -Igbo proverb

12. Traveling is learning. -Kikuyu proverb

13. Traveling teaches [people] their way. -Kikuyu proverb

14.  It is better to travel alone than with a bad companion. -Senegalese proberb

15. A new thing does not come to she who sits, but to she who travels. -Shona proverb

16. To be sure that your friend is a friend, you must go with him on a journey, travel with him day and night, go with him near and far. -Angolan proverb

Do you know any good travel proverbs? Leave them in the comments.